Practical Agronomic Measures for Assessing Organic Farm Conservation.

According to the NOP (National Organic Program) of USDA, conservation practices must be in place or implemented on each organic crop or livestock farm.  Practically, how do organic inspectors, local extension staff, or NRCS personnel assess those agronomic measures that contribute to the required conservation program?

First, visual observations of obvious gully-washers (on the negative side) or of fence line windbreaks, butterflies and/or bees swarming, grass waterways, and wetland areas (on the positive side) can be observed by anyone with minimum sensitivity or training related to what to look for when walking across farm land.   Additionally, the organic farmer is required to manage plant and animal materials to improve soil organic matter content without contamination of soil and water. 

Secondly, there are simple on-site measures that can be administered by minimally-trained persons.  FSA-, NRCS-, or TSP-generated field maps indicating HEL-land are useful indicators for areas needing further exploration to assess conservation practices utilized (permanent pasture/diligent cover crop practice) or the need for implementation of a remedial practice.  Fortunately, there are supportive services available to the organic industry to support farmland conservation practices through NRCS and land-grant university extension services.

Thirdly, there are sophisticated analytical measures.  (1) Computer-generated RUSLE-2 soil loss equations that determine estimated annual soil loss (tons/acre) when soil type, crop rotation, and farm management are provided.   Having soil loss data available is quite useful, as a good crop rotation interspersed with required cover crops, has shown five- to eight-times lower number of tons per acre annual losses.  (2) New Geospatial Agricultural Management and Crop Assessment Framework (GAMCAF) tool brings together models that estimate plant growth and crop yield with spatial sources of information on soils, water, and land use.